Manage your subscription

No air crash miracle, just safer design

The seemingly miraculous escape of all 309 people aboard the Air France jet that careered off the runway at Toronto’s Pearson airport last week may have owed much to the safety features built into many modern aircraft.

Flight AFR 358, a 6-year-old Airbus A340, landed during a heavy thunderstorm. Investigators at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are now trying to work out why the plane touched down nearly halfway along the runway. Chief investigator Real Levasseur says it appears that the Airbus did not have enough room to stop in the wet conditions before it ran out of tarmac. …